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Episode
051
By Any Other Name
Beings from the Andromeda galaxy take human form, then take over the Enterprise for the 300-year journey home. But has being human changed them. Are they still Andromedans? Find out as we put By Any Other Name in the Mission Log.
Hey Ken and John,
I cannot adequately express how much I’m enjoying your mission log podcast, I only discovered it a few months ago and now I’m frantically trying to catch up. I’m also grateful that Netflix has all the episodes available to stream.
I grew up watching Star Trek, my parents were serious fans and although I certainly watched all of the episodes of TOS; TNG is when I truly became a fan in my own right as this was my middle school and high school years.
After high school, I joined the Navy and although I tried very hard to keep up with the Star Trek series’ then on TV, DS9 and Voyager, I know I haven’t seen them all. I even started watching Enterprise at one point, but fell out of that as well. It was hard to keep up with shows when being stationed all over the world and being deployed on ships for 6 months at a time.
I’ve often thought to myself, “self, I’m going to start from TOS and watch every episode and movie of the Star Trek universe, so I know I’ve seen everything.” I discovered your podcast a few months ago and it’s providing the perfect format to do so, I watch each episode and then listen to your podcast. I’m so enjoying stepping through TOS and at the same time can’t wait to get to TNG and the rest of them.
In any case, I’ve wanted to write to you a few times, but the reason I felt compelled to after listening to this episode is that there are two moments from this particular episode that have been lines of humor in my family for as long as I can remember and I didn’t fully realize where exactly they came from until watching this. My mother often joked to my dad “is there some significance to this action?” when he kisses her lol. I had no idea where this came from, just figured it was from some old movie. The other is when Scottie is trying to identify the liquor he is about to drink, but simply says “it’s green” my parents and I use this one a lot too, (I know this shows up again later, although I can’t remember when. But), but it’s funny that I’ve used this line without really remembering where it came from. Basically, there is more Star Trek ingrained in my than I even realize.
Thanx for putting on such a great podcast allowing me to rediscover my history and eventually see what I’ve missed through the years.
Lauralee
Hi Lauralee! Thanks for the comment. Really happy you’ve been enjoying the show, and glad we could be part of your rediscovering Star Trek. Love that your whole family finds the space to inject a Trek reference here and there – even if you don’t remember where it came from. Something about the deeply ingrained influence Trek still has, I guess. Thanks again!
I’m doing the exact same thing. Grew up on reruns of TOS. Caught the first TNG in the First Class Mess on AD-43 _USS Cape Cod_ in 1987. Now caught up and current with all these Mission Logs. Backed off, now to one episode per week, pacing Champion and Ray.
“Thanx” for your service, Ms. Husen Albert.
Thank you for your service as well!! I’m now at the end of season 3 of TOS, I think 3 or 4 episodes to go 🙂
This was THE Podcast that made me want to know if? you guys were on Paramount’s payroll. I mean – Not One unkind word or comments at all were said about this episode.
It’s like you guys pissed off some listener/s before in that past and now you were trying not to say anything mean.
Listening to your review of this episode reminded me of reading the comments section of “The Star Trek Compendium”, by Allan Asherman, where in he wrote “By Any Other Name” is an enjoyable adventure. I totally disagree. This whole concept was a terrible idea.
It sucked worse than a Dyson Vac.
It could have been a great follow up episode to “Where No
Man…”( It’s not even season three and they were already re-using old effects shots) but no, instead we get crewmen reduced to little piles of white cardboard poop with straight edges. It falls right on it’s face and reminded me of drinking plain- old, flat soda pop.
How bad is it?
Well folks, it was so bad that I would like to call “By Any Other Name”
– “That Which Doesn’t Smell Quite Like a Rose.”
( and that’s being kind.)
In this episode, Kirk and crew come up against what has easily got to be THE Worst plot device ever created for the Alien bad guys, and that’s the “Neural Field Thingy” . This was obviously just an easy way to get rid of the rest of the crew for an episode .(=cost savings)
With a press of a button on a little black box – a person is reduced to nothing more than a a mere block of salty cardboard that would make the even the salt vampire drool.
Ok – once that’s done, ( read this next line like Dr. McCoy )
just how is it you can bring that human back – exactly?
I just don’t buy that crushing the cube would make any difference at all. What, could they really just simply add water in order to re-hydrate a living , breathing person?
( I think all you would get is a large glass of salt water)
Stop and think about this? And, by-the-way, IF you could
( and you can’t) why would re-hydrated Red-shirts suddenly then be wearing their uniforms? Should they not be naked?
Instead of have a Paralysis Projector Switch and Human Dehydrator Button , why not have our invaders come from a planet that’s like we saw in the movie Dune, and use sound as way to immobilize the enemy?
Holy frozen milk powder Batman
= why not have the Kelvan’s utility belts have a portable personal force field generator device attached to it instead? They could have used the same effect seen in the detention cell in the brig.This one gets my vote for “Worst Episode Ever.”
Period. Case closed.
Don’t get me wrong. I love your show.
But, I like it when you guys point out the really bad- as well the good parts. At 1st – I thought it was because of the material. However, you guys have proven that to not be the case,( repeatedly – over and over) as some of the worst episodes have yielded both some of the best podcast and best Trek discussions that I’ve ever read on the web.
I thought this Podcast missed the target because I
just feel like you guys just skipped over some things here, like the chance to discuss what this episode was lacking, or I should say, what it need.
(OK- Disclaimer – to your credit- and to be fair- maybe that’s not “what you do”.) However, I’d like to.
First of all, they made a whole episode ( the second Pilot) that dealt with the dangers of crossing the great energy barrier, where upon the shields are USELESS , the warp engines were damaged and the energy in it zapped 2 people and turned them into all powerful gods and even the Kelvans lost their ship to it in this one. Not even a form of transmission can penetrate it. However, here in this episode, is there an issue with Enterprise recrossing it? – Nope, not one. Now crossing it is made as easy killing a red shirt. Easier even. Why?
The whole event lacked any real drama. Kirk wasn’t going to blow up the ship and end the series and we knew it . It would have been nice if Spock had said something to Kirk in his whole “blow up the ship” speech,or later up on the bridge about what happened to Gary the last time they were here, and could they afford to take that type of risk should that were to happen to one of those supper smart Alien minds? That would have added a great since of weight to this
episode. You guys even missed a point of trivia here at this point, failing to even mention that Spock does states: “ density negative, radiation negative, energy negative “ exactly as he did in “Where No
Man…..”
Also, the problem the crew’s “stimulation” of
the Kelvans is that , most of it, isn’t even necessary – even though you guys found all of it very entertaining
. I mean, once Scotty manages to
steal the device from Tomar, he then passes out before he can deliver it to the captain! Even the attempt to reverse the circuitry of McCoy’s
neuro-analyzer and take out the thingy fails !
Just like most of this episode. Need I say more?
After all that, is it maybe just OK that we had a different opinion than you did about a particular episode? I mean, it’s an opinion show. It’s perfectly alright that we experienced something differently than you did. I respect that you have a very passionate opinion on this episode; every episode is someone’s favorite or least favorite.
So, no, we aren’t being “paid off” to be kind to something we both enjoyed well enough. I know that was meant facetiously – it’s just silly to think that’s the only way we could possibly come to different conclusions.
LOL Sure thing John,
Sorry about that.
Sometimes the evil Will gets out , takes over, and goes wild –
It’s cool, man. And I promise that once we start getting paid off by the producers, the first round is on me!
Also “Evil Will” will end up being both someone’s favorite and someone else’s least favorite episode.
Riddle me this……Where else have we seen a Human Dehydrator device before? Oh yeah….
I strongly object to your analysis of the episode.
You seem to say that because one of the weapons used on the show was unrealistic that the show was bad.
That is a profoundly superficial criticism, in my opinion. It often takes a good deal of effort to explain why something is good, and why it is bad. Typically, criticism is usually based on plot, story, effects, action, character, themes. And I think you could make an argument that this episode may rise above the usual drek because it tells a story that the aliens were tempted by human emotion and so changed their minds about their course of action. In other words, character development changed the plot. Because of the character development in the episode – and it is done in what I consider to be an entertaining way – I would give this a pass.
But I could also make a case against the episode. Lack of special effects, corny dialog, primitive effects, lack of action, arbitrary decisions, stiff acting. But I don’t think all these negative things outweigh the positive.
Here’s some computation trivia: based on online warp factor calculators, to reach Andromeda (2.537 million LY) in 300 years, on the old TOS warp scale, that’s actually around warp factor 22! Memory Alpha notes that perhaps warp 11 is just the factor required to penetrate the barrier because it would take much faster speeds than that to reach Andromeda in 300 years. On Okuda’s revised TNG scale, that’s about warp 9.938. Interesting to note just how much faster later era ships are, as the Enterprise D, E, or Voyager are capable of high speeds like this, but could never sustain them for anywhere near 300 years without many complete overhauls.
Still a long time. Bring a book. And sandwiches.